This invention relates to electrical connections, and more particularly to a splice device.
The term multiconductor wire in the present specification is utilized to denote a wire such as a telephone cable or other means including a plurality of conductors which may be separately insulated and all covered in a common insulating jacket. Other variations are well known. The multiconductor wire is also referred to by those skilled in the art as a multiwire cable.
It is a common requirement that the conductors at the end of the first multiconductor wire be spliced to conductors at the end of a second multiconductor wire. One application in which this arises is in the use of a multiconductor wire as a telephone cable. Telephone cables are strung from telephone pole to a house. The multiconductor wire comprising the drop line is spliced to a wire at the telephone pole. A first conductor of the first wire is spliced to a first conductor of the second wire. Similarly, a second conductor of the first wire is spliced to a second conductor of the second wire. It is well known to perform this splicing by removing the outer cable jacket and stripping the individual conductors adjacent to the end of each wire. The first conductors of each wire may be spliced together in a first crimp barrel. Similarly, the second conductors of each wire may be spliced together in a second crimp barrel. In order to complete the splice connection, it is necessary to electrically isolate the two crimp barrels from each other, for example as by use of an insulating tape, and to provide overall insulation of the spliced area. It is a common result of such an operation to provide splices of unequal length. In other words, the distance from a reference point adjacent the stripped end of the first wire to a reference point adjacent the stripped end of the second wire when traced along the first conductor splice is different from that traced along the second conductor splice.
This difference in splice lengths present a physical disadvantage. In applications such as a telephone drop line splice, the splice bears a tensile load of at least a portion of cable. In typical uses, the splice bears the weight of an entire telephone cable running from a telephone pole to a house. In certain climates in winter seasons, the tensile load on the drop line may be markedly increased by the weight of icicles which form on and hang from the suspended telephone cable. Where splice lengths of first and second conductors are unequal, the entire tensile load is borne by the shorter of the two spice conductors. This splice conductor under load must elongate substantially until it is equal in length to the second splice before any of the load is transferred to the second splice. It has been the experience of telephone companies, for example, that overstressing and breaking of the first splice connection results.
Due to difficulty in performing the above-described splicing process in the field, telephone companies will frequently ship broken cables back to their shops, increasing expense in repair.